Osage second at home tournament

By Kristi Nixon

OSAGE — Scheduling Minnesota second-ranked team in Class AA, Kasson-Mantorville, serves a purpose even though the Komets have defeated Osage in its home tournament the last 14 years.

Tucker Stangel of Osage, who went 5-0 against competition at the Osage home duals last weekend, recorded 33 takedowns and set the season record for takedowns in a season. EJ Photo/Kristi Nixon

Coach Brent Jennings has in mind that his team needs to get an idea what it should work on as the post-season looms.

“It was a good day for us,” Jennings said. “We wrestled pretty well overall. Nice thing about wrestling good competition is you can find where you are weak at and gives you something to work on for the next week.”

Because of the winter storm that dumped close to a foot of snow in some places throughout the state left some teams pulling out and others entering which had their tournaments canceled, Osage went 4-1 on the day with wins over Hampton-Dumont (48-30), Davenport Assumption (47-28), Ankeny Centennial (49-21) and Decorah (53-21).

Kasson-Mantorville won 50-18.

“We were hoping to have Independence today,” said Tucker Stangel, the Osage 126-pounder who finished 5-0. “A team that beat us earlier in the season, so it’s nice to have that tough competition with Kasson, but I wanted to have Independence today.”

Jennings added that he was glad that Hampton-Dumont stepped in.

“We were fortunate to be able to compete today with the weather the way that it was,” Jennings said. “A lot of tournaments got canceled so I’m really glad these teams were willing to come. We moved it back to accommodate for travel for everybody.

“The roads weren’t very good, but once we got here we were fine and got some good wrestling in and our kids wrestled hard. We lost a few matches that maybe we shouldn’t have and overall we learned from those and moved on and hopefully by conference and sectional time we have those things cleaned up.”

Not only did Stangel go 5-0, he recorded 33 takedowns in four matches with a forfeit and became the school record holder for takedowns in a season in his final match of the day against Decorah.

“I’m feeling pretty good,” Stangel said. “I’m feeling a lot better than last year. Last year, I didn’t score as many points. Today, that last match I got…I took over the school record for takedowns in a season. So, I’ve been scoring a lot more points this year and feeling way more dominant.”

The full story appears in the Jan. 19 print edition of the Enterprise Journal.

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